On a damp weekend in July, the NAME team went to help out at the Marvellous Materials Royce stall at Bluedot festival. Bluedot is a music, science and culture event held annually in July since 2016 at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England, combining music, live science experiments, expert talks and immersive artworks.
The NAME team spent the weekend delivering outreach activities, taking festivalgoers on a journey through how we use atoms as devices and create new materials. Initially investigating how we implant single atoms into a new material, demonstrating this with a ball pit using different weighted balls. Next, visitors used light microscopes to observe materials on the microscale, while Lego atomic force microscopy demonstrated how we observe surfaces at the atomic level. Finally, we demonstrated how this technology is used in real life with light and microwaves. Our outreach optic board light-to-sound demonstration used different optical components to show how we use light and how we can change it by listening to its responses. Our new miniature maser demonstrated how the Lovell Telescope keeps Jodrell Atomic Time.
Although a little wet by the end, the team engaged with over 900 visitors, with some people coming back and asking more questions! The team got to enjoy many of the various acts through the weekend and through the mud including a Sunday headline from Grace Jones as well as the thumping beats of Leftfield.
Bluedot Festival 2023
